An Italian oud player and a Greek ney player collaborate to bring Ottoman classical music to life. Ottoman music was a kind of early fusion with influences from Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Turks as well as other peoples from Anatolia and Asia Minor. Although these two musicians were trained in the classic western tradition, they fell in love with this music, for good reason, and now specialize in it. Beautifully rendered, this CD evokes the heart and soul of Middle Eastern high culture.

No FCC”s (all instrumental); Favorite tracks: 1, 6, 7, 10

*1-- Ney & Oud Taksim –3:13 – haunting cries of the ney answered and undergirded by the low voice of the oud in a taksim or improvisation

2—Acem-Kurdi Pesrev—5:01 – ney and oud interweave in a a circular sounding melody crossing our Western major-minor key boundaries many times

3 –Ussak Curcuna –5:09 – ney is the ground here; rhythm picks up and is more noticeable and intricate

4 – Oud Taksim-- 2:13-- playful little oud solo

5—Zavil Saz Semai –6:58 – oud and ney in unison with their totally distinct timbres; picks up speed

*6—Periklis –6:46-- wilder and more interesting ney part with oud grounding

*7 –Empros –5:55-- oud takes foreground and then ney comes in and does a wild high dance above oud intervals

8—Ney Taksim –1:17-- pretty ney solo

9—Bestenigar Saz Semai –5:08 – skips progressively through major-minor and does the cool quarter-tone thing with some nice oud tremolos near the end

**10—Bahar –10:06 – moonlight shines through this one which means “spring” (as in the season) in Persian